2020 NBA playoffs: It’s time to see if there’s substance behind Sixers’ unofficial motto
The Sixers have told us on many occasions this season that they are “built for the playoffs.”
Their upcoming first-round series against the Celtics won’t be a perfect test of that theory, since one of their two All-Stars is sidelined by an unfortunate knee injury, but it’ll be the first time the statement has been anything besides hypothetical.
In the context of Ben Simmons’ injury and the fact that his team has rarely resembled the one he thought in September could compete for the top seed in the Eastern Conference, it would’ve been reasonable for Brett Brown to stress that expectations had changed because the Sixers were without one of their best and important players.
Instead, he doubled down, or whatever it’s called when a head coach sticks to an unofficial motto yet again in a marathon season that’s been shaped by a pandemic.
I do,” he said. “And I think that for a few reasons. I think that defensively, we are starting to understand how to play with each other, we’re starting to understand the switch groups. We clearly need a healthy Joel Embiid. … You need a healthy Joel Embiid to make the run that we need to make. I think that defensively, there’s a spirit, there’s a connection amongst our group that makes me say that.
“I feel like offensively, there is a path. It’s a different path than it used to be with Ben, but there is a path. I think that our scoring opportunities, I think that our symmetry has been pretty clean and clear since the loss of Ben.
“I think that both sides of the ball and the spirit, I believe that we are built for the playoffs. I look forward to playing Boston. They’re well-coached, they’re a great team, they’ve had an exceptional year and we’ve been beaten up and now is our moment. Now is our time to be recognized and I think that the group has the ability to do that.
The Sixers’ rationale to support the “built for the playoffs” mantra has often featured Al Horford – the idea that he could assist in guarding Giannis Antetokounmpo, back up Embiid competently and provide veteran savvy. None of those possibilities have evaporated, and yet the overarching concept is still one Brown needs to sell. It’s not at all self-evident that the Sixers are set up for playoff success. In fact, they will be heavy underdogs against Boston.
There are reasons to believe in an upset, but you have to stretch for them. Embiid could be dominant and, for the first time, healthy throughout an entire postseason. The Sixers, after shooting 41.6 percent from three-point range during their seeding games, could stay hot. The 34-year-old Horford could help contain the 22-year-old Jayson Tatum, and the Josh Richardson and Matisse Thybulle tandem could be effective against Kemba Walker. Defending the three-point line well – the Sixers have allowed the fewest made threes per game in the NBA – could prove valuable, as could avoiding turnovers better than in seasons past.
It’s not out of the question that enough of those ingredients will materialize to beat, in Brown’s estimation, a team with “four players that can get 30 on a given night.” One senses Brown and the Sixers are hopeful they can speak it into existence. They want to believe the playoffs are a different world, one where the regular-season flaws of a gigantic roster, including the Horford-Embiid pairing, lose relevance.
I do, and I stand by this, feel like our team is built for the playoffs,” Brown said on May 15. “I think if you took a ruler or a measuring stick and you kind of measured us wingspan to wingspan, we have the tallest team in the NBA. I think that we have an opportunity to guard because of that length, and I think spirit, as well as anybody.
“All of our attention during the regular season and when we meet even now on the phone is, ‘What works in the playoffs?’ We’re always sort of grounded … like, ‘This is good, but you know what, it’s not real – what works in the playoffs?’
Horford, the man whose face would probably be on a “Built for the playoffs” shirt, brought the motto up without any prompting back on July 3.
“… I believe that our group is built for the playoffs,” he said. “The regular season is always tough. We have new guys and everybody trying to mesh, but I believe this is a second chance for us and a great opportunity.”
Indeed, it is a second chance for a team that hasn’t yet met its own expectations. And it’s time to see – as well as we can without an All-Star – whether there’s substance behind a very persistent mantra.
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